Dinner & a Movie?

Saturday morning Tyson and I packed up the kids and headed to a nearby park for a family picnic hosted by the Priesthood quorum. The guys (and a few girls) played softball while the rest of us watched the kids run around on the playground, then we ate hamburgers and hot dogs and chatted.

Saturday afternoon, Tyson and I asked Connie to watch the kids so that we could go to a movie. At least she thought that was why she was watching the kids. Tyson helped her reface the frame of her kitchen cabinets last fall and they built new cabinet doors together. Connie primed the doors months ago, but between her surgeries, social life, and Tyson's busy work schedule, the doors never got installed. Tyson headed over to her house and dusted off all of the cabinet doors, then lined them up to see which one went where. Then we fastened the hardware and installed the doors, assembly line style. Tyson drilled the holes for the hinges and screws, then I attached the hardware to the door and took the finished door inside and placed it in front of the cabinet to which it belonged. Then I would bring out another door and we would do it again. We had a pretty good rhythm going and finished the project in about 3 1/2 hours. We wanted to affix the knobs to the doors too, but the cabinet doors needed another coat of paint, and I knew if we spent any more time away, she would be suspicious of our "dinner & a movie" ruse.
This is the "before" shot.
Some of the openings are different sizes, so we lined up all the doors to see where they fit.
Tyson drilled the holes for the hinges.
I attached all the hardware - with a screwdriver at first, until I began to get blisters, and we hunted for a spare cordless drill.
I held the doors in place while Tyson marked where to pre-drill for the hinges on the cabinets, then we took turns attaching the doors.
Finally, after all our hard work, the doors were all in place. We couldn't find the drawer panels to go in front of the sink, and we didn't have time to make more this time. Later Connie told us that she already has the wood to make them, she just hasn't gotten to it yet.

We tried to put everything back where we found it, but we almost made the garage too clean. We had to sweep up all the sawdust and beat it out of some carpet runners that she has next to her car. I think I put one of them back in the wrong spot. She told us later that she walked from the garage into the kitchen and thought, "I don't remember leaving the garage this clean". But she was still surprised when she walked inside and was greeted by nearly finished cabinets, instead of open shelves. She was pretty happy that we'd gotten all that done for her for mother's day, but she also was a little disappointed that we hadn't actually taken time to go on a date ourselves. Connie is awesome that way, always looking out for everyone else. I think we did get our date, and it was a service date, which was somehow much more fun than a traditional date.